Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copies and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
LIVING ON THE HILL WITH GOD
Psalms 15:1-5, "LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved."
Isn’t it good to dwell in the House of the Lord? David wrote in Psalms 133:1, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" Wouldn’t it be wonderful thing if we could dwell in the peace and tranquility in our everyday life that we feel while we are in the Lord’s House as we come together to praise, worship and serve Jesus. The atmosphere of God’s House should always be an atmosphere of peace, love, joy and unity. I thank God that we feel these wonderful things every time we come together as the Body of Christ.
Yet it is not always so once we walk out the door. How many times have I seen and experienced this for myself! My lovely wife and I have been married for 35 years, come April 6th, and our love is greater today than it has ever been. Certainly life has had it’s up’s and down’s for us. Which of us has not had both good and not-so-good times?
We rarely argue much anymore but it took a lot of growing and changing for both of us to get to the place we are now in our marriage. It was not an easy road, nor was it always fun, but I am so very glad that we chose to travel it together and that God gave us the grace and determination to stick to our commitment to one another and to God. I can only say that the Lord is what has helped us to make it thus far and it is the Lord who will continue to lead us on, as long as we live for Him.
Unity is a wonderful thing in a home, a family and in a church. It is something we must guard as you would guard a precious diamond. When we walk together toward the same goals, with the same vision, nothing is impossible. That’s the kind of church, the kind of people, that God can use to build his kingdom in the hearts of men.
But unity is a fragile thing. It only takes one small, almost insignificant problem like a harsh word spoken at the wrong time; one instance of ignoring another person who needs to be noticed; one time of looking wrong with your eyes; or one time of bringing a word of criticism when we should have kept our mouth shut. All of us have a tendency to let our tongue speak while our brain is still in neutral. I love that old saying that says, “Caution – Be Sure Brain is in Gear Before Putting Mouth Into Motion.”
But this isn’t a message on unity. It’s a message on what it takes to live in the same kind of atmosphere that we feel in God’s House and around God’s people when we are in unity. What does it take for mere man to dwell with God all the days of his life? What does it take to get to the top of the hill in your relationship with Jesus?
I believe that we are all alike in that we would desire to “tabernacle with God” or to dwell in His presence all the time. Isn’t it a wonderful feeling to know that Jesus lives within you; that the Great, Creator, Almighty God of Heaven lives in your heart; and that his Spirit leads you and guides you through life each and every day?
Psalms 91:1-2, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust."
The 15th Chapter of Psalms gives us the general path to walk if we are going to reach the top of the hill in our experience in Christ.
“He that walketh uprightly…” there is only one way to walk before the Lord and to continually invite the presence of the Holy Spirit into your life. You must live everyday as though Jesus would come again on that day.
Walking uprightly doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t do anything wrong and make mistakes, maybe even some big mistakes. It means that you live in such a fashion that makes God proud to call you his child.
Have you ever seen the time when God would not have wanted to brag about your life? When we are acting like rebellious children I wonder if God brags on us then? If you are going to dwell in the presence of God then your life must show that you enjoy serving him. We should be happy to work in God’s kingdom, doing whatever is necessary for the growth of the church, and the spreading of the gospel.
Walking uprightly means that we walk with integrity toward God and man. It means that we live every moment, conscious of the fact the God is with us and that he sees and hears everything we do. We live life daily to please him and do our best not to offend God’s holy and righteous character.
How can we think that we will dwell in the high places in God and still live like the world? We can’t dwell in high places and live the low life.
If you are going to dwell with God, you must begin to walk up the mountain. It’s a hard climb sometimes because we all “fall short of the Glory of God”, but you have to keep on climbing.
A rock climber can’t get halfway up the face of the cliff and decide to stop there. He is left hanging between reaching the top and safety or just waiting for the rope to break, allowing him to fall to his death. He may have to pick a different foothold or rest to regain his strength for the climb. He may have to even chip away at rock face to find a way to continue on, but he must reach the top or give up and go back to the ground where he started from. But giving up and going back is not an option for those who have received Jesus as their Savior. There is no place to go but upward for them.
If you are going to climb up to God’s holy hill and dwell with him you may have to face the hard times and take out your hammer, the Word of God, and chip away at that sin that is holding you back until God gives you the “handhold” or “foothold” to break the power of that thing! You have to reach the top! There is no stopping for long.
There can be no going back because the ground is no longer there. The ground that you started from is gone forever. You will never enjoy that old life as much again. You will never find peace or satisfaction in scratching around on the earth with a bunch of worldly chickens. You are destined to soar with the eagles on the mountaintop with God! The old friends may act like they care but they really don’t. You’ll never find peace, joy and fulfillment in that old life on the ground, so keep on climbing. God will bring you to the top to dwell in his own tabernacle and live in his high places in the realm of the Spirit.
“…and worketh righteousness…”
Walking up the road to the high places in Christ require that we put forth a lot of effort to get there. It’s not a place that we just get to by accident or by default. It’s not a place where we get to by wishing it, or hoping for it, or wanting it, or believing we are going to get there without some action to make it happen. Getting into the high places in God and living in his continuous presence requires hard work, determination and total commitment.
How many of you would like to have a brand new car sitting out there in the parking lot just waiting for you to get in and take you wherever you wanted to go? Don’t you just wish that it could be true? Don’t you hope that one day you will see it happen? Do you really want that car? Do you believe you will see it and have it one day? Well friend, you can wish, hope, want, and believe for it all you want, but if you don’t get out there, go to work, earn the money to pay for it and then search for it, sign for it, and then maintain it when you get it, you will never have it! Anything worth having is going to require work, effort, time and commitment to make it come true. The same is true in reaching the High Places in your experience in the Lord.
You are going to have to put feet and hands in motion to prove your faith and do some works of righteousness if you are going to dwell in the high places in God.
Have you ever seen anyone fall UP? No! When someone falls, it’s always down, not up! Gravity determines that you won’t fall and then float up. You’re going to come down hard! You will never just float up in God either. Just coasting along in your Christian experience without spending some time in prayer, reading and studying the Word of God and working in the place where God has called you work for Him, will not get you into the High Places in God. You have to work at it and commit to it, then you will see your progress up that mountain. You have to bear fruit that shows your determination to reach the top!
“…and speaketh the truth in his heart…”
You can’t fool God. You can’t pull the wool blanket over His eyes. God knows the very thoughts and intents of your heart! God knows if you mean business or you are just giving him lip service. God knows if you are on fire for him or if you are just a smoking ember that’s growing cold.
We have to be honest with God. Tell him what you feel. Tell him what you think. Let God hear your complaints and your disappointments and your doubts and your fears and your inability to climb higher because of the obstacles in your life. Tell God about it all. You can tell me or some other person but we can’t do a thing about it. God can remove the obstacles or help you overcome them. He wants you to talk to him and ask him for help. God won’t get mad if you gripe to him. He will answer you, even though we don’t always like his answers.
Paul says that we should “pray without ceasing”. Some of us have a motor mouth. We never stop talking. We talk when we should be listening. We talk when we should be watching instead. We just talk, talk, talk and talk some more without really saying much that really matters at all. Why then, can’t we pray without ceasing? Why can’t we talk to God constantly like we can talk to one another? God wants to hear about your vacation. God wants you to talk to him about your troubles and trials. God wants to hear about your zits in life. God wants to hear your voice, even when others don’t, because He Really Cares. So be open and truthful with God. He’s a big God. He can take your bad attitude, your fussing, your griping and He can actually change your heart. God wants his children to talk to him in prayer!
If you ever want to dwell with God in his high hill, you must first learn to communicated openly and honestly with him and quit playing church.
“…backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.”
How can we ever expect to experience God’s best if we don’t treat other people as good as we should, especially those who are in the family of God. We should be kind, gentle and truthful to all people, all the time, no matter where we are.
I know people who will be kind, gentle and loving in church but look out at the checkout line at the department store. That waiter better be wearing armor because they are going to get the full brunt of my pent up frustrations. I have seen Christians who praise God on Sunday morning then tell of a waiter at lunch right after the service is over.
How many of you have ever bit your tongue? It hurts doesn’t it? I sometimes think that if would bite our own tongue instead of letting our tongue bite others, we would live in a better world. The tongue wasn’t made for back-biting, it was made to speak the truth and to praise the Lord and to communicate love and compassion for other people, and to lick your lips. Use your tongue for the right reason.
Too many people have been killed by the power of the tongue. Why don’t we speak life into the heart of other people instead of speaking death to them through criticism? We can control our hands, our feet, our whole body and we can make this body do what we want it to do but there are very few who can control that little muscle called the tongue!
We can stick it out at other people. We can wag it and spread gossip. We can use it to lash out at others. But very few us use it enough to bless people with the right kind of blessings.
How can we treat one another this way and expect to climb the mountain and let God live within us? God can’t dwell in a house that is full of bitterness, hatred and a critical spirit.
“In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD.”
If you are going to climb up that Spiritual hill and dwell in high places with God you cannot be a friend of the world because the world is an enemy with God.
Certainly God wants us to witness to the lost. Yes God has placed us in a filthy, dirty, sinful world and expects us to still live right and build his Kingdom.
We cannot agree with those who love sin. We have to hold in contempt anything and everything that disagrees with the Word of God. We cannot condone anything that is unjust or sinful, no matter if it costs us something to do so.
I know so many who vote for people who are for abortion and a lot of things that we know are absolutely against the teachings of the Word of God and we do so because we think that they may be able to make our lives a little easier.
Tell me something. When did God say that it was acceptable to choose to support the wicked just to get what we want or need? God said that he would be the one to supply all of your need according to His own riches in Glory, not the vote or power of some wicked, vile, unregenerate, self-centered, self-seeking politician who couldn’t speak the truth if his life depended on it. We place our trust in man but not in God and that warps our thinking so that we are easily deceived and start leaning on the arm of the flesh instead of the power of God.
If we are going to dwell in high places with God, we need to sharpen our sense of right and wrong and learn to discern what is the will of God and not the will of the flesh.
The world’s thinking is backwards from that of God and all to often, God’s own children line up with the world’s way of thinking.
The world honors those who are successful and it doesn’t always matter how they managed to gain their success. God honors those who are successful too, but only if they obtained that success through righteous, holy and sanctified means.
“…He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent…”
Now we are talking about integrity, something that is very lacking in society and even in the House of God. If you are going to live in High Places with God you will have integrity.
There was time in our nation when a man could borrow money, have the confidence that he could pay it back without being robbed with high interest rates, and seal the deal with his word and a handshake. His word was as all that was necessary because people had integrity and they would do what they promised.
Sad to say, those days are long gone forever. Both those that loan and those that borrow are untrustworthy now.
The loan company has to cover their loan by mountains of paperwork and binding contracts that will tie up their customers in legal battles and liens against everything they own to ensure that they get paid back, and that doesn’t always guarantee they will get repaid either. The borrower had better beware too. There are a lot of unscrupulous loan sharks out there who will charge you outrageous rates of interest, usury, and you will never be able to pay off your loan. The highest legal interest in our state right now is 37%. Even on a simple loan of $5000 you will pay back nearly $7000. But now we have these amortized loans and floating loans that will charge such exorbitant amounts that even a wealthy person can lose everything very quickly. It’s not hard to find someone with this type of loan, let’s say of $50,000 for an older home that needs a lot of work, to have to repay $250,000 or more over the life of a 20 or 30 year note, and that’s if he has a fixed interest rate. Floating interest rates can easily double those amounts over time.
I don’t wonder that God has promised us in Revelation that all business, industry and commerce under this present world economic system will have to be utterly destroyed. How evil the heart of men who would steal bread out of the children’s mouths of those who can least afford it so that they can ride around in a Roll’s Royce. How unjust is it to force a family into bankruptcy and take their home and everything they own while you spend their hard earned money on lavish vacations and in the gambling casinos.
This system needs to be destroyed so that the righteous system of God’s economy can bring prosperity during the Millennial Reign of Christ! I can’t wait for that day when your work will really bring prosperity and every man’s work will be blessed.
Those who will dwell in high places, in God’s holy hill, and let God tabernacle with them, will never be found guilty of such practices. If we really love people and love God we will never do things to harm them or destroy them, even at the expense of losing something of our own to see that they are taken care of. We must learn to take the fault and let God handle making all things right again.
“…He that doeth these things shall never be moved."
If we will learn to dwell in God’s high place and allow Jesus to control our lives, we will never be defeated. God’s people live in defeat all to often because we don’t give God first place in our lives.
Give it all to Jesus. Let God rule and reign in your life. Let your life reflect the teachings of this Psalm of David and you will never be moved from the presence of the Lord.
For those who might not know Jesus, your first step is to know that you aren’t even climbing yet. You are still in the valley of decision where sin abounds. You must come to Christ, confessing that you are a sinner and unworthy of anything but to die in the flames forever. Confess Jesus as Lord of your life and let Him come into your heart and wash away that guilt and shame.
Then you can start your climb into the High Places with God. Then God will come to you and dwell with you.
